Thousands of Island Lake residents still haul their drinking water in pails from a community tap and rely on outhouses or latrine buckets that some dump on the ground close to home. What will it take for these Manitobans to secure what the United Nations recognizes as an essential human right to safe water and sanitation?

ISLAND LAKE -- Thousands of Manitoba residents an hour's flight from Winnipeg have no running water in their homes, putting them at increased risk for a host of health problems usually associated with the world's poorest countries.